Romney Fires First Shots at Gingrich

On this day — Romney takes his first swings at Gingrich, who believes he can win South Carolina; Cain re-evaluates his campaign; Perry has another flub; Cain reconsiders his campaign for the White House; Donald Trump could be back (not kidding); and the rest of the days must reads are in ‘The Clips’

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Adviser: Cain Re-evaluating Campaign

Yesterday, GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain told supporters on a conference call that he was re-evaluating his campaign after it was rocked by fifth sex scandal — this time, a woman has come forward to allege a 13-year-long affair with the pizza magnate. The New York Times reports:

A day after a woman in Atlanta stepped forward to say that she and Mr. Cain had a 13-year relationship and presented cellphone bills to document their regular contact, he told campaign aides that he would make a decision about his future in the coming days. He denied having had a romantic relationship, but advisers said he wanted time to gauge the reaction of supporters and contributors, as well as to see whether his family preferred that he leave the race.

“It’s also taken a toll on my wife and my family, as you would imagine,” Mr. Cain told staff members and a few big supporters on a campaign conference call. “The public will have to decide whether they believe her or whether they believe me. That’s why we’re going to give it some time, to see what type of response we get from our supporters.”

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Romney’s Fires First Shots at Gingrich

Borrowing a page from his campaign’s playbook from when Texas Gov. Rick Perry rocketed to the top of the polls, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney took his first swings at former House Speaker Newt Gingrich during an interview on FOX News last night, calling Gingrich a career politician.

“He’s a lifelong politician. I think you have to have the credibility of understanding how the economy works. And I do. And that’s one reason I’m in this race.”

Among the Republicans running for president, Romney said that he believes he has the best shot “by far” of defeating Obama. He called Gingrich “a good man,” but highlighted the differences in their backgrounds.

“He spent his last 30 or 40 years in Washington,” Romney said. “I spent my career in the private sector. I think that’s what the country needs right now.”

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Gingrich: I Can Win South Carolina

In an interview with CBS News, Newt Gingrich said that he was confident that he could carry the critical state of South Carolina in the Republican primary, telling interviewer Nancy Cordes that the early primary state would be “decisive.”

Watch the entire interview:

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Gingrich Offered More than ‘Historical’ Analysis

Newt Gingrich has long denied multiple reports that he did significant amounts of lobbying for the health-care industry and government-rescued mortgage giants Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae. A The New York Times investigation found that Gingrich did do extensive lobbying for health-care firms, reports that come on the heels of a series of stories from Bloomberg that Gingrich was paid between $1.6-1.8 million to lobby for Freddie/Fannie.

In a variety of instances, documents and interviews show, Mr. Gingrich arranged meetings between executives and officials, and salted his presentations to lawmakers with pitches for his clients, who pay as much as $200,000 a year to belong to his Center for Health Transformation.

When the center sponsored a “health transformation summit” at the Florida State Capitol in March 2006, lawmakers who attended Mr. Gingrich’s keynote speech inside the House chamber received a booklet promoting not just ideas but also the specific services of two dozen of his clients. Executives from some of those companies sat on panels for discussions that lawmakers were encouraged to attend after Mr. Gingrich’s address.

Gerard White, president of Clearwave, which paid about $50,000 to become a center member, used the occasion to pitch his company’s system for managing patient medical data. “It was a way for companies who were part of Newt’s group to say to health officials in Florida, ‘Hey, here are some exciting things we’re doing,’ ” Mr. White said.

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Another Perry Gaffe

Campaigning in New Hampshire yesterday (where he’s polling at about 2 percent), Texas Gov. Rick Perry managed to get the date of the state’s ‘first in the nation’ primary wrong as well as the voting age, which he said was 21. For Perry, it’s another gaffe that’s helping to buttress the narrative that’s been built by several terrible debate performances: he simply can’t keep facts straight and think quickly on his feet.

He did more than misspeak. He did more than recklessly attack his own base and generally act like the class bully assigned to spend study hall with the chess club. He did more than forget his talking points and display an uncomfortable lack of knowledge of important topics. He simply suffocated.

With one disastrous performance after another, he proved that he did not belong on the stage. Perry and his defenders dismiss this as inconsequential. Debates are nothing but fancy talk, and it’s on-the-job performance that matters, they say. In truth, debates are on-the-job performance for presidential candidates. They help reveal whether candidates can think on their feet; whether they have general, working knowledge of the affairs of state; and whether they have less tangible “leadership” qualities so many voters look for.

Students at elementary schools in Amarillo, Texas, don’t get drawing lessons as a five-year-old finance plan from Republicans led by Governor Rick Perry hasn’t delivered funding needed to avoid cuts and improve education.

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Perry, a contender for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, and legislative leaders in Austin have blamed this year’s public-education funding shortfall on a weaker economy and flaws in a 2006 tax overhaul that hasn’t met projections for revenue. In the two-year budget that began in September, aid to local schools fell short by more than $5 billion, a situation that business leaders have said threatens the state’s economy.

“Texas needs a structurally sound school-finance system that isn’t continually underfunded,” Harvin Moore, a board member of the Houston Independent School District, said in a telephone interview. The fourth-biggest U.S. city by population has the state’s largest system with about 200,000 students.

“Numerous legislators told me and others that they would rather leave the system broken and wait for districts to sue,” letting a judge make the hard choices involved, Moore said. The two-year budget passed in May eliminated a deficit estimated to be at least $15 billion and provides $53.8 billion for schools.

– The National Journal writes that President Obama’s re-election campaign could borrow a page from former California Gov. Gray Davis and attempt to pick their choice opponent in the Republican primary.

– CBS News reports that Donald Trump is once again talking about jumping back into the presidential race (no, I’m not kidding).